


So We're Fighting Again

by Hag_of_Ages



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Custody Battle, Entrapdak, F/M, I tried writing jokes, Multi, everyone's holding grudges, kyle crushing hard on his friends, silly fluff, the princesses don't know how to run anything, what even is law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24634207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hag_of_Ages/pseuds/Hag_of_Ages
Summary: After the war, the Princess Alliance has made a new system of justice in a court of law. They're testing it out with their first trial: Hordak vs. the Horde Trio for custody of Imp. It's a disaster until Hordak realizes there's a bigger problem at hand. Is it time for him to make a stand, or is it time to surrender for something bigger than himself?
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), Kyle/Lonnie/Rogelio (She-Ra), Kyle/Rogelio (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 125





	So We're Fighting Again

**Author's Note:**

> So this one might be a little tonally different compared to my other fics, but I couldn’t get the silly idea of Judge Mermista out of my head. Writing it made me giggle enough to post it here, maybe it will make other people giggle, too. 
> 
> Obviously I'm not trying to make it accurate to any actual due process, it's just for the jokes.

“All rise for the Honorable Judge Mermista!” shouted a guard. 

The princess-appointed-judge took a seat at the large desk that looked over everyone in the audience of Bright Moon.

“Okay, everyone can sit down now…sometime today, please,” Mermista said, slumping in her seat. “All right everyone I have an announcement to make: I already hate this job. Glimmer, why can’t you do it?”

“Because that would be an excess use of power!” Glimmer shouted from her seat far in the back.

“Okaaay…” Mermista groaned. “That didn’t stop you from, like, doing everything you did during the war, but fine.” She sat up straight and cleared her throat. “Today, we are here to witness the first trail in Etheria’s new judicial system. We have with us some ex-Horde soldiers! Including the dictator himself, Hordak. But are we going to put them on trial for their war crimes?” Mermista paused, waiting to hear an answer. 

There was a cough in the audience. 

“Um…we’ve already repaid our debts to society, right?” Kyle squeaked from his spot in the row of defendants. 

Mermista talked right over him. “We’re here to settle who has the custody of Etheria’s favorite flying rat baby, Imp.” She gestured to the tiny creature, who sat in the middle of the court. “So, let’s just get started. Plaintiff, do your thing.”

Hordak sat stiffly in the plaintiff’s table, tugging at his collar that seemed to tighten with each second. Not only was he wearing his armor exoskeleton, he wore a suit over it. Agreeing to be a part of this judicial experiment was his latest attempt at being recognized as a true citizen of Etheria. He wanted to look presentable. Refined, even. If anything, he looked more like a dapper skeleton stuffed with pillows.

“Don’t worry, you got this, Hordak,” Entrapta said, giving his hand a squeeze. “Remember, speak from the heart. And what’s inside the heart?”

“Blood and muscle tissue?"

“Yes, that. And what else?"

“Cold, hard facts,” Hordak whispered back. 

Entrapta gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up. 

With that morsel of encouragement, Hordak stood up. A chill ran down his spine as he heard the sound of fabric tearing. The faces in the audience began to break into snickers of laughter. They were pointing at him. 

Note to self, he thought, never wear a suit again. 

“Hello, my name is Hordak,” he started. “You all know me as the man who spent twenty years colonizing your planet. I have also spent the past year and a half making it up to everyone as much as I can. I have given up all rights of ownership to the land I stole and the weapons I built. The one thing on Etheria that is truly mine, however, is that creature right there.” He pointed a finger to Imp, who was currently digging a finger into his nose, oblivious to what was going on around him. 

“This creature is called ‘Imp,’” Hordak said. “I biologically engineered him from my own DNA and gave him his name. He is the closest thing to an offspring I will ever have. Certain events during in the war separated us, and since then Imp has been in the care of the defendants.” He gestured to the trio of Kyle, Lonnie, and Rogelio. Kyle nervously waved at everyone. Lonnie slid further back in her chair, looking like she was ready to die. 

“They refuse to return Imp to me. I simply want him back,” Hordak concluded. “Er…thank you all. Have a nice day.”

Hordak sat back in his seat and slammed his head on the table. 

“You did good,” Entrapta cheered him on. She tried to covertly whisper in his ear, “You’re gonna need a new suit, though.”

“Sooo compelling,” Mermista said from her seat on high. “All right, defendants, it’s your turn.”

Kyle whimpered as he felt everyone’s gaze on him. He looked to Lonnie, desperate for some words of encouragement. She was already falling asleep. Kyle then looked to Rogelio, gazed into his yellow lizard-eyes, and swooned. 

Rogelio made some guttural grunts that made Kyle’s chest swell with reassurance. 

“Thanks,” Kyle whispered, then stood up. 

“Um…I’m Kyle! Me, Lonnie, and Rogelio used to be Horde soldiers, but we’re not anymore! In fact, we were the first to defect.”

“Objection,” Hordak said, “Adora was the first to defect.”

“Objection! Can he do that?” Kyle asked.

Mermista shrugged. “I mean…he’s not wrong? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Just tell us why we’re here wasting our weekend on this.”

“We’re here because we found Imp during the war and we’ve been taking care of him ever since,” Kyle rushed out quickly. “Imp loves us now and we want to keep him but Hordak won’t let us.” He plopped back down as fast as he stood up.

“Okay,” Mermista said. “So this isn’t about who needs Imp more, this is about who Imp needs. Imp, you got anything to say on this?”

The little flying creature tilted his head at her, confused. He opened his mouth, parroting back Mermista’s own words, “Imp needs…weekend.”

Mermista snickered. “Oh, man. Can I fight for custody over him next? So um, Hordak, why don’t you tell us what kind of home you have set up for Imp?”

“I can do this part,” Entrapta said, standing up. “Hi everyone, I’m Hordak’s lab partner.”

“You’re also a princess,” Hordak mumbled.

“Oh, right, that too!” Entrapta went on, “As I have taken Hordak under my watch after the war, his goals represent my own. After studying the behavior and diet of Imp, I have taken the liberty to convert an entire section of Crypto Castle to his ideal habitat.”

Mermista said, “That’s great-”

“I should also mention that Imp won’t be alone, he’ll have a little sister, our robot Emily,” Entrapta continued. “Studies show that children with siblings end up with a higher quality of life than children who don’t.”

“Okay, Entrapta, I think we-”

“I should also mention that Imp represents untapped research potential and to not give him to me is a crime against nature itself. That’s all. Thanks!” Entrapta perched back down in her seat. 

“How’d I do?” she whispered to Hordak.

“You were excellent.” Hordak took her hand and kissed it. 

“Defendants,” Mermista asked, “care to rebuttal?” 

All eyes were on the scrawny blond, who seemed to crinkle under everyone’s gaze. “Um…we don’t have a home, we’ve just been moving from place to place after the war,” Kyle said. “We’ve kinda just been making things up as we go along.”

Lonnie and Rogelio both nodded in confirmation. 

“Maybe you’re right,” Kyle said, sitting down. “Maybe Imp is better off with Lord Hordak and Princess Entrapta.”

The audience mumbled with consideration at this revelation. Hordak crossed his arms, relieved that he had finally achieved an honest victory.

“Hold on a moment,” Mermista said. “Kyle, are you hearing yourself? You just called him ‘Lord’ Hordak. He’s not the lord of anything anymore. Are you really gonna let Hordak get away with this? First he stole your childhood, and now’s stealing your baby.”

“I thought we’ve established that Imp is my baby,” Hordak spoke up.

“Silence,” Mermista demanded. 

“Well, um, I didn’t even have a family even before Hordak showed up, so he didn’t exactly ‘steal my childhood’…” Kyle considered. 

“He destroyed my kingdom,” Mermista innocently offered. “Not to mention plenty of other war crimes and misdeeds…”

Hordak cleared his throat. “Pardon me, all of this is true, but this trail isn’t about that.”

“Yeah!” Kyle exclaimed. 

Hordak smiled with pride at him.

Then Kyle said, “They don’t deserve to have Imp, we do!”

“What?!” Hordak gasped. “If we’re making this about past allegiances, let’s not forget who obeyed every order I gave. An evil dictator is nothing without his followers!”

“True, true.” Mermista nodded.

“Some of us didn’t have a choice!” Kyle said. 

“I believe you did have a choice. You could have left at any time,” Hordak accused, “why didn’t you leave sooner?” 

“Hordak, that’s a logical fallacy! This isn’t making for an affective argument,” Entrapta shouted, worried about the discourse that would soon follow. 

Despite Entrapta’s attempt, nothing could stop it. Lonnie and Rogelio joined in the verbal fight. Everyone in the audience started weighing in their own opinions. 

“I believe Hordak deserves the second chance that everyone does!” Wrong Hordak declared.

“Nobody asked your opinion, you’re still an alien like him!” Frosta shouted.

“I thought we were all past this, ex-Horde members are all friends now,” Scorpia cried.

“Of course it’s not going to be that easy,” Catra hissed. “They’re making it difficult for us. They don’t trust us.” 

“I thought we were talking about Hordak’s weird flying pet thing?” Adora said, gripping her head in the lunacy of it all. 

“Order! I demand order!” Mermista shouted, raising her trident in the air and summoning a torrent of water from the sky. The audience went quiet as they ogled at Mermista’s sudden power. “We shall all take a ten-minute recess before resuming. Court is adjourned!” 

As Mermista settled back into her seat, she smirked. “I think I’m starting to like this job.”

\---

“This is madness,” Hordak ranted as he paced back and forth in the Bright Moon courtyard. “How can they expect us to present our own cases? We need trained representatives to advocate for us. Those princesses don’t know the first thing about reforming systems of government.”

“I gotta admit, Hordak, I’m impressed,” Entrapta said. “I wish that people were fighting over my inventions the way that they’re fighting over yours.”

“Imp is more than just an invention.” Hordak stopped pacing and gazed wistfully at the horizon. “For so long, I was alone. Imp was the first of many attempts to clone myself. He was not the form I wanted, but he still was an extension of myself…and that cannot be replaced.”

“We could just try to clone Imp,” Entrapta suggested. “That would be fun!”

Hordak pressed his back to the wall and slid down to the floor. “It wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t be my Imp.”

Entrapta sat next to him. “You know, I’ve ran into similar problems as the head of Etheria’s Makers Community. Some people would steal my ideas for inventions, because they couldn’t think of anything better themselves. But I never saw it as something mean. I saw it as a compliment. Maybe this is a compliment to you, too. You made Imp so cute yet functional, that Kyle and his friends can’t resist him.”

Hordak sighed. “I will never understand Etherian social customs.”

Entrapta leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’ve been on this planet for thirty years and I still haven’t. But sometimes you just have to trust on the reliability of certain patterns of behavior.” 

“Certain behavior patterns…” Hordak echoed. “I think I know what to do.”

“Great! Now go and do it, you’ve only got seven minutes and thirty-two seconds left,” Entrapta ordered. Before Hordak could get up and go, she caught him in her hair. “Wait, lemme sew that rip in your suit.”

“Forget it.” Hordak tore the suit off of him and threw it away, leaving him in just his plain exoskeleton and trousers. “I like this look better.”

“Me too. Wait, Hordak!” Entrapta begged one last time.

“What?”

“I need to give you my daily reminder that I love you.” Entrapta pushed herself up on her hair and gave him a kiss. “Now, go!”

\- - -

Hordak was surprised to find Kyle sitting by himself, his head hanging low. 

“Kyle,” he said.

“Gaaah!” the young man squealed. He looked up and covered his head. “I’m sorry, Hordak, please don’t hurt me!”

Hordak stepped back for Kyle’s own comfort. “I am not going to hurt you. I just want to let you know that I am calling off the trial. Imp is yours.” Hordak’s heart hurt at speaking those words, but he had to bear it.

“Wh…why?” Kyle peaked his eyes out from his arms. 

“Those who were not in the Horde are still figuring out what to do with us,” Hordak said. “They are trying to turn us against each other. I will not allow it. As part of the ex-Horde, we must find ways to support each other, not tear ourselves apart.”

“So…you’re giving Imp up?” Kyle asked, a bit of hope shimmering in his eyes.

“I am not giving him up. I am entrusting him to you,” Hordak said. “We must show these fools that just because we were soldiers once, it does not mean that is all we are capable of.”

“Really? That’s…that’s actually kind of nice.” Kyle smiled. “Th-thank you, Hordak.”

Hordak nodded, getting used to the feeling of being nice. As saccharine as it was to admit, it did feel good. 

“It might not mean much to you – as I truly believe you are capable on your own – but if you need help with anything at all, I am at your disposal.” 

“Actually, there is something I’ve been…” Kyle paused and looked around. Nobody else was around but them. “Hordak, I need help.”

“Yes?”

“Well, um…you and Princess Entrapta are dating, right?”

“I…erm…in layman’s terms, yes.”

Kyle looked down, tapping his pointer fingers together. “How do I tell someone that I love them? And what do I do if they don’t love me back and now I have to be all alone and I’ve never been alone before?”

Hordak was stumped. How was he supposed to answer questions about love? He was only just beginning to learn for himself what it meant. 

“If it means that much to you, if you can’t imagine living any other way, then you should tell them your feelings.” Hordak asked. “But keep in mind that there are worse fates than being alone. Now, I’m going to inform the princesses of my decision.” 

Hordak walked away, then stopped as he remembered something from years ago. “Is it Rogelio or Lonnie you love?”

“Both,” Kyle squeaked. “I’m doomed, aren’t I?”

“No one is ever ‘doomed,’ I refuse to believe it,” Hordak said. “I might remember seeing something of interest on security footage before the war ended…a certain reptile stealing a shirt from your locker.”

Hordak watched as Kyle’s eyes widened with hope. 

“That’s a start, yes?” Hordak asked.

Kyle’s face pinkened. “I thought I lost that shirt forever…”

\- - - 

Hordak stretched out his arm for Imp to crawl on. The tiny creature reached his creator’s chest and nuzzled his head underneath his chin.

“Be on your best behavior, now, Imp…if such a thing is possible,” Hordak told him.

Imp gave him a chirp before gliding towards Entrapta. He flew circles around her before perching on her head, where she gave him a pat with her hair. 

After their goodbyes, they watched as Imp flew into the arms of Kyle, Rogelio, and even Lonnie. It hurt Hordak to see how happy Imp was to go back to them. Part of him wished Imp would turn around and return to his side. When he watched how the trio gave Imp loving pats, Hordak felt reassured. 

“They will take good care of him,” Hordak said, more for himself than anyone else. 

“We can always visit,” Entrapta said, “but that would mean actually leaving Dryl.”

Hordak chuckled. “Indeed. After this catastrophe, I would rather enjoy a long stay in Crypto Castle. Alone, with our own work.”

“Oooh, I like the sound of that.” Entrapta leaned in, giving him a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows that translated to seduction, scientific experimentation, or both. “You know, Hordak, all of this has got me thinking,” she continued, holding onto his arm. “What if we made…something of our own?”

“Another robot, like Emily?” Hordak guessed.

“No, like…” Curiously, Entrapta’s face grew red. “Something with your DNA.”

“Not an Imp clone?” Hordak asked further.

“Something with my DNA, too. A biological creation that’s all our own!”

It took Hordak longer than it should have to realize what Entrapta was talking about. When he got it, he laughed. He laughed so hard that he cried.

“Could you imagine…if such a thing were possible!” 

“I guess there are more than a few improbabilities associated with that,” Entrapta admitted. “But wouldn’t you agree it’s a worthy experiment?”

“Entrapta, the more time I spend on this planet, the more of worth I see,” Hordak spoke as he continued to look on at Imp and his new family. “Etheria is a strange place. I am glad to be part of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not sure if it’s ever explained where Imp comes from. I always headcannoned that he was a failed clone that Hordak actually liked enough to keep around. 
> 
> Also nothing can stop my entrapdak baby agenda.


End file.
